Day 36

‘I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people, and you have put those who call themselves apostles to the test, and they are not, and you found them to be false; ³ and you have perseverance and have endured on account of My name, and have not become weary” Rev 2:2-3 NASB.

In this text, Jesus uses two different Greek words to express the idea of “patient endurance” and “enduring hardship or difficulty.” In a sense, these words express two different ways of saying the same thing. But put the two concepts together and there is the combined sense of moving on when you cannot move anymore, or continuing to carry a burden when the weight is pressing you down. It is a combination of the English word “patience” with the English word “endurance.” 

The Christian life is sometimes like that. In the valleys, we skip along and seem to make wonderful progress. But if we choose to come up to God’s vision for us, we must eventually ascend to the upper mists of the high mountains. We must go into the thin air of high places. We must learn what patient endurance is all about. 

“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Rev 2:4 NASB

The Ephesus church seems to have been replaying the experience of Israel before the exile to Babylon. In the words of Jeremiah to the people of Jerusalem, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert. . .” Jer 2:2, NIV. The early years of Israel’s experience in the wilderness was a time of relative devotion and faithfulness. But now things have changed: “I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?” Jer 2:21, NIV. 

If you had to choose between strong doctrinal soundness with decisive action and love, which would you choose? When we don’t know what to do, the safest course of action is to love. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that we could have doctrinal soundness and all kinds of helpful works but if we don’t have love, the works are of no value.  

By nature, we tend to be severe with others and merciful toward ourselves. Any church that loses touch with the centrality of the gospel is a church that will begin to wound people even in its faithfulness and sound doctrine. So whenever we are not sure how to handle a specific situation, it is the safest course to err on the side of love and mercy.